Chapter 273

Nix ran past everyone on campus and headed for the trees. I pulled back enough that I was hovering over our magic, pulling from it to feed power into my body, into the girls’ bodies.

“How is this possible?” Toya called to me, and I laughed.

“Magic,” Nix called back, and a few of the girls howled.

We ran past the edge of the trees and started weaving through the trunks. “Nix?” Thistle, Hanna’s wolf, called.

“Yeah?”

“Where are we going?” She called as she picked up her pace.

I thought of Carly. She was at most seven, but she sounded younger on the phone, closer to five or six. I knew where she was, my grandmother’s cabin, but from here, I had no idea. But I trusted the goddess, and I trusted my wolves. “The goddess will show us the way,” Nix called back, and I nodded.

Megan pushed closer to the barrier. “Megan? What are you doing?”

She looked at me, then back to Nix. “You are wasting magic feeding Nix. Focus on the girls; I will send my strength to Nix. This way, we will have your strength and our magic to save the girl.”

I thought about Carly’s little voice, and I agreed. “Nix?”

“It’s okay with me. We just need to get there.” I nodded and pulled back the magic, giving the burden to Megan and Nix alone. There was a howl off in the distance, one that sounded familiar, but I pushed it out of my mind. It wasn’t important.

Carly was.

We wove farther away from the school, and I was starting to panic. How were we supposed to randomly show up on the edge of an ocean? I knew logically we were by one; the school was near the coast. But was it the right coast?

I closed my eyes, and I called to the goddess. “Mother, I have need of you. Moon goddess, we beg your intervention.” I called out and I waited. I pushed and pushed, but there was nothing. No light. No power. Nothing.

Megan looked over at me. “What are we going to do?” Nix focused on the trees, but I could feel the shift. We were taking too long. That little baby girl and her father were fending off who knows what, and I had no idea where we were.

“Nix?” someone called, and it snapped our focus back outward. We had pulled in, focused on the girl, that someone caught up to us.

I snapped my head back to look at Wendy’s wolf, but she wasn’t looking at me. She was looking back at the massive grey wolf catching up to us. Every once in a while, I saw a flash of fur, of pale white-blue eyes, and my stomach dropped.

Erubus.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Megan’s voice was filled with rage, and I couldn’t stop the bitter laugh. She turned on me, and I slapped a hand over my mouth. “Why is it that today, of all days, both your fucking men decide to show up and do something stupid?”

She huffed as she settled on the ground, focusing back on Nix and her running. Nix barely looked back before she focused fully on running, and I left myself open to figure out what direction we needed to go.

I closed my eyes and remembered the call. Her little voice was terrified but also held a deep sadness. This was the end for them, her dad and their time together, and she knew it. I felt a tear fall. She was too young to go through this alone.

“Moon Goddess, please give me a direction. Give me a nudge, an idea, anything that tells me where I need to go to save this little girl,” I begged, but still, I was met with silence.

“Where do we go?” Nix called to me, her voice filled with barely concealed worry, but I had no answer.

“I don’t know…” I called back to her.

“Well, I think you need to figure it the fuck out. We are running blind here,” she called back.

What the heck was I supposed to do?

Megan pulled away from Nix for a moment and came to my side. I looked up at her, and she nudged my forehead with her nose. “Close your eyes. Open yourself to us, to your power, to the goddess. And try again. Put away the worry, and focus on our goal: Carly.”

I closed my eyes and opened myself up completely. I felt everything release little by little. The worry, the anger, everything I had been holding on to, float away. I centered myself, clearing my mind, until I felt a hand on my shoulder. I opened my eyes. “I don’t know what to do.”

“I know, my girl, that’s why I’m here.” Relief flooded me as I tried to stand, but she put a hand on my shoulder.